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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29100156">Like A Bird Out Of Hell</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/HelixDoubleHelix/pseuds/HelixDoubleHelix'>HelixDoubleHelix</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>World Without Robin 'verse [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Batman (Comics)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Civilian Jason Todd, Dick Grayson is a Talon, Gen, Lists, dick grayson's big brothering is a universal constant</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 13:26:53</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,153</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29100156</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/HelixDoubleHelix/pseuds/HelixDoubleHelix</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>50 things Grayson (formerly Talon) learned in his first year of freedom, in no particular order.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dick Grayson &amp; Jason Todd</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>World Without Robin 'verse [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2135109</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>155</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Like A Bird Out Of Hell</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>6 months after the first one, here we are. For the record, this didn't take me 6 months. It was originally the first part of another, longer part, but it wasn't fitting and I Gave Up. So the <i>next</i> next part will be here...at some point in the future. Probably.</p><p>Title from <i>Batgirl: Year One (2003) </i>: "He sees that Bat-signal in the sky and takes off. Like a bird out of Hell. And he just expects me to follow him. And I do."</p><p> Warning for vague mentions of racism/slurs on item 46.</p><p>Edited 12/05/21 for small grammar adjustments.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong> <span class="u">50 Things Grayson (Formerly Talon) Learned In His First Year Of Freedom, In No Particular Order</span> </strong>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>1. How to wear sunglasses</strong>
</p><p>Jason grabbed a pair from the dollar store, with big, blue-tinted lenses. They hid Grayson’s yellow eyes, and helped block the bright sunlight, which he wasn’t used to, having spent so long underground.</p><p>“Also,” said Jason, “they make you look hot. Objectively speaking.”</p><p>
  <strong>2. How to pick pockets</strong>
</p><p>They tried to stick to grown-ups with nicer clothes on<span class="ILfuVd NA6bn"><span class="hgKElc">—</span></span>teenagers never had cash on them, and Jason said he felt bad stealing from people with just as little as themselves. </p><p>
  <strong>3. That he loves fireworks</strong>
</p><p>He’d seen a lot of explosions in his eight-year stint as an assassin. None of them had been this beautiful, and the company had never been this good.</p><p>
  <strong>4. How to count money</strong>
</p><p>“Why do they all look the same?”</p><p>“Old white guys are just like that,” said Jason. “Oh, wait, you mean the bills?”</p><p>
  <strong>5. How to use a screwdriver</strong>
</p><p>There were multiple uses, actually—screwdrivers worked well as both projectile and handheld weapons. He was disappointed to learn that their intended function was simply twisting metal pins.</p><p>
  <strong>6. Which cops were trustworthy</strong>
</p><p>“None of them,” said Jason. “The answer is none of them.”</p><p>“Even the dogs?”</p><p>Jason nodded mournfully. “The dogs are narcs, man.”</p><p>
  <strong>7. How to write his name</strong>
</p><p>He saw his identity written out in front of him, <em> T Grayson, </em>and he’d never felt less like a weapon. </p><p>
  <strong>8. Gotham is unreasonably cold in winter</strong>
</p><p>“It was warmer underground,” he mumbled from under two blankets. “I don’t like this.”</p><p>“You know they’re calling for a foot of snow on Thursday, right?” asked Jason, and burst out laughing at Grayson’s horrified face.</p><p>
  <strong>9. How to walk on ice</strong>
</p><p>The bruises hurt for weeks, but he didn’t mind<span class="ILfuVd NA6bn"><span class="hgKElc">—</span></span>it had been a long time since he’d had injuries that weren’t from someone else.</p><p>
  <strong>10. What black licorice tastes like</strong>
</p><p>“This is kind of bad.”</p><p>“Then stop eating it.”</p><p>“No,” said Grayson, just because he could do that now. He took another bite and gagged.</p><p>
  <strong>11. The basics of US politics</strong>
</p><p>“When it comes to voting, you’re supposed to vote for the candidate who you think has your best interests at heart. But—and this is important, write it down—no one has <em> our </em> best interests at heart, because we are poor, and also brown. So we can just vote for whoever’s less openly racist.”</p><p>“I’ll never be able to vote,” Grayson pointed out. “I don’t have an identity.”</p><p>Jason waved a hand. “That’s cool. You wouldn’t exist to the government either way.” </p><p>
  <strong>12. How to use Urban Dictionary</strong>
</p><p>He had regrets. </p><p>
  <strong>13. How to play (and win) poker</strong>
</p><p>“Motherfucker!” said Jason, and threw his cards in the air. It was a good thing they were just playing with paper clips as money, because he owed Grayson eight thousand dollars.</p><p>
  <strong>14. How to take a hubcap off a car</strong>
</p><p>Disassembling a wheel was not very different from disassembling a person, and sliding a tire iron under a hubcap felt similar to sliding a knife into a neck. He kept these thoughts to himself, though, because they seemed like the kind of thing that would make Jason’s eyes get watery.</p><p>
  <strong>15. How to high-five</strong>
</p><p>“Ow,’ said Jason, cradling his hand to his chest. In Grayson’s defense, he had been told to slap as hard as he could. </p><p>
  <strong>16. How to cut hair</strong>
</p><p>“This is awful,” Jason announced, looking at his reflection in the window. “I love it.”</p><p>
  <strong>17. The abbreviated history of corruption in Gotham’s police department</strong>
</p><p>The police were so ineffective that their own commissioner preferred working with a grown man dressed as a bat. This was bad for the community as whole, but it was great for stealing things without being caught.</p><p>
  <strong>18. The non-abbreviated history of every book Jason’s ever read</strong>
</p><p>“...So Olivia’s all ‘marry me now, Cesario,’ even though it’s actually Sebastian, right, and Sebastian’s obviously not going to turn her down, because, hello, hot woman alert. Meanwhile Antonio’s pining, like, he’s clearly gay for Sebastian—every Antonio in Shakespeare’s plays is gay. Did you know that Shakespeare had a sugar daddy, by the way? I mean, he called himself a ‘patron’ but when Shakespeare wrote about him it was <em> real </em>fucking saucy—T? Are you listening? Grayson!”</p><p>
  <strong>19. How to make faces at babies</strong>
</p><p>The baby smiled at him like he was something good. It was hard to explain, afterwards, why it felt like there was a hole in his chest. </p><p>
  <strong>20. How to jaywalk</strong>
</p><p>“Isn’t it always Jay-walking for you?” he asked slyly, and dodged as Jason tried to push him back into traffic.</p><p>
  <strong>21. How to not look suspicious</strong>
</p><p>Jason insisted there was an art to it, but as far as Grayson could tell he could have run naked and screaming through the streets and no one in Gotham would have even looked up from their phone.</p><p>
  <strong>22. What a nickname is</strong>
</p><p>Jason called him <em> T </em>in the middle of breakfast, garbled through cold, watery oatmeal.</p><p>“You know,” he said, “for Talon.”</p><p>“But what’s the point?” Grayson asked.</p><p>“I don’t know, it’s just something friends do. I won’t say it again if you don’t want me to, though. Or you can pick something else, if you don’t want something from Talon.”</p><p>“T’s fine,” said Grayson, his brain singing <em> friends friends friends. </em>He smiled. “Thanks, Jay.”</p><p>
  <strong>23. How to use an elevator</strong>
</p><p>It turns out that a small, crowded, shaking box is a bad place to put someone who spent eight years being locked in a coffin to sleep. He threw up as soon as they exited the building.</p><p>
  <strong>24. The history of Thanksgiving</strong>
</p><p>“It seems like a lot of these holidays are kind of awful,” he observed.</p><p>“You should see the bars on Cinco de Mayo,” Jason grumbled.</p><p>
  <strong>25. How to pick his own clothes</strong>
</p><p>It wasn’t like he had a wide range of choices, since all their clothing was stolen out of donation bins, but he got to choose between a green shirt or a purple one, and that was more than he’d ever had before.</p><p>
  <strong>26. Common human medical conditions</strong>
</p><p>“Hey, since your cells are constantly regenerating, do you think you can still get cancer?”</p><p>Grayson frowned. “What’s cancer?”</p><p>“Oh, dear god.”</p><p>
  <strong>27. That he absolutely loves dogs</strong>
</p><p>The woman kept apologizing, for some reason. Grayson, personally, would have been content to lay under a hundred pounds of fur for the rest of his life, especially if it meant that Jason would keep laughing like that.</p><p>
  <strong>28. How to read “the classics”</strong>
</p><p>“‘This hob-bit was a ver...a very well-to-do’...What’s that?”</p><p>“Like, rich,” Jason explained patiently. “He has a lot of stuff.”</p><p>“So the opposite of us?”</p><p>“Exactly.”</p><p>
  <strong>29. That ice cream is delicious</strong>
</p><p>Half an hour later, he also learned that he was lactose intolerant.</p><p>
  <strong>30. The location of every Salvation Army in Gotham</strong>
</p><p>He kept lookout on top of the donation bins while Jason rooted around inside. “Don’t people need all this?”</p><p>“Yeah, man, <em> us. </em>And they’re homophobic assholes anyway. I don’t want to give them money when we can get this stuff for free. Hey, you want some Aquaman socks?”</p><p>“What’s homophobic?”</p><p>“...Oh, boy.”</p><p>
  <strong>31. What the Internet is</strong>
</p><p>The library computers were free to use, even without a library card. He spent a lot of time on Wikipedia while Jason sat next to him, nose buried in whatever giant book he was reading that day. He knew more about how traffic lights worked than anybody should.</p><p>
  <strong>32. What nightmares feel like</strong>
</p><p>Before, in the Court of Owls, he hadn’t dreamt. He’d almost forgotten what they were. But now he woke up almost every other night with his muscles tense, eyes darting around frantically. He woke up terrified, hands remembering the motions of killing, screams in his ears<span class="ILfuVd NA6bn"><span class="hgKElc">—</span></span>but Jason was always there, half-asleep and fumbling, for him to hold on to.</p><p>
  <strong>33. How to give Christmas presents</strong>
</p><p>Christmas might have been, as he so often claimed, a commercialist scam run by greed instead of love, but Jason started crying over his new socks anyway.</p><p>
  <strong>34. Several key phrases in Spanish and French, mostly curses</strong>
</p><p>“You’re really good at math, <em> chou. </em>”</p><p>“Thanks, dude<span class="ILfuVd NA6bn"><span class="hgKElc">—</span></span>wait, did you just call me a fucking <em> cabbage? </em>Where did you even learn that?”</p><p>
  <strong>35. How to tie his hair up</strong>
</p><p>He understood it perfectly the first time Jason showed him, but he pretended not to because he liked having his hair touched. It took Jason nearly a week to realize he was faking, and then he just rolled his eyes and kept doing it anyway.</p><p>
  <strong>36. Two dozen different uses for duct tape</strong>
</p><p>“Clothing, wallets, bandages, plumbing, artwork, home improvement, scratches on your car, making a raft when you’re stranded on an island, fixing the antenna on a tv, sprained ankles, backpacks, hair removal—”</p><p>
  <strong>37. That hot drinks can hurt your mouth</strong>
</p><p>It seemed reasonable at the time, okay? The coffee was free, and warm, and Grayson was cold. So he tossed half the cup back at once, and then he couldn’t taste anything for two days.</p><p>
  <strong>38. Why Wonder Woman is the best member of the Justice League</strong>
</p><p>“Like, yeah, Batman’s a local or whatever, but does he have a sword? No. Does he have a lasso? No. Does he focus his efforts on human aid instead of beating the shit out of poor people who have no other way to escape our circumstances? Hmm? Yeah, I thought so. Wonder Woman 100%, T.”</p><p>
  <strong>39. How to go dumpster diving</strong>
</p><p>Jason cut his arm open on a rusty piece of wire. Grayson, who’d recently learned about infections, absolutely slathered the cut in antibiotic ointment lifted from the convenience store. Jason’s arm was shiny for hours and he complained through the entire process, but he didn’t wipe it off.</p><p>“Thanks, T,” he said quietly. “No one’s ever worried about me getting sick before.”</p><p>That wasn’t right, Grayson thought.</p><p>“Don’t worry,” he promised. “I can’t get sick, so I can put all the worry on you.”</p><p>
  <strong>40. What a wasp sting feels like</strong>
</p><p>They were small, but vicious, like a chihuahua, or like Jason.</p><p>
  <strong>41. That he hates the heat just as much as the cold</strong>
</p><p>“Is it just always uncomfortable?” he demanded, wiping sweat out of his eyes.</p><p>“Pretty much.” Jason didn’t move from where he was shirtless on the cool cement floor. “You’ll get used to it eventually, though.” He thought for a second. “Probably.”</p><p>
  <strong>42. How to put on makeup</strong>
</p><p>In the winter, he could hide his...<em> unusual </em>physiology by bundling up, but in the summer, they had to get more creative, so they went to the convenience store.</p><p>Jason squinted at two bottles of cheap foundation. “Do you think you’d be more of a ‘soft beige’ or a ‘medium beige’?</p><p>“Aren’t they the same?” Grayson reached for a different shelf. “Hey<span class="ILfuVd NA6bn"><span class="hgKElc">—</span></span>”</p><p>“No.”</p><p>“I didn’t even<span class="ILfuVd NA6bn"><span class="hgKElc">—</span></span>”</p><p>“We’re <em> not </em>getting you eyeliner.”</p><p>
  <strong>43. What airplanes sound like</strong>
</p><p>Grayson watched them fly overhead, never faltering, strong and sure, and remembered he once had a father. </p><p>
  <strong>44. How to be the teacher, for a change</strong>
</p><p>Jason was a natural at throwing punches. He was not a natural at <em> dodging </em>punches.</p><p>“This is just embarrassing,” said Grayson, the fourth time Jason came home with a black eye. He took off his sunglasses. “C’mon. Let me show you.”</p><p>
  <strong>45. How to introduce himself</strong>
</p><p>He called himself <em> Grayson </em>to anyone who asked, and even to a few people who didn't, just to remind himself that he was someone else now.</p><p>
  <strong>46. Racism, in multiple forms</strong>
</p><p>“Okay,” said Jason, white-faced. “So we won’t go into the suburbs again.”</p><p>Grayson nodded weakly, feeling cold. He didn’t even know what half the words those men had shouted meant, but he was sure he’d find out. </p><p>Jason kicked the sidewalk. “Fucking <em> Robbinsville.” </em></p><p>
  <strong>47. How to cook</strong>
</p><p>Okay, so they didn’t have access to a stove, or fresh food, or a cookbook, or any of the implements traditionally used in cooking, but damn if Grayson couldn’t pour a flawless bowl of cereal.</p><p>
  <strong>48. What a donut is</strong>
</p><p>“I can’t believe you’ve never had donuts,” said Jason, spewing crumbs. “What did they feed you back there? MREs?”</p><p>“I was fed through an IV,” said Grayson, and completely missed Jason’s horrified face, too focused on his strawberry icing.</p><p>
  <strong>49. How to sleep without a lid above him</strong>
</p><p>It wasn’t hard. A mattress was definitely nicer than a coffin, even though he had to share it. He could get out whenever he wanted, instead of being locked inside, and it was much warmer with Jason wrapped around him like an octopus.</p><p>
  <strong>50. How to sing</strong>
</p><p>“You are super, super bad at this,” said Jason decisively, and then joined in anyway, and Grayson laughed.</p><p> </p><p>It was the best year of his life, so far.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Uhhh should be another sequel eventually but I'm writing six fics at once whenever I get inspiration for one of them? So who knows when. </p><p>Comments are cool and I like them. Hit me up on tumblr @buteojamaicensis</p></blockquote></div></div>
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